Dear Committee Point Person,

On 12/21/2011, the General Assembly consented upon the below proposal, which requires Committees to appear at GA between January 1st and January 14th, and announce to GA their existence, their continuing function, and how they meet the following criteria:

1. Be horizontal, participatory, open, democratic and transparent.

2. Have a hard function

3. Provide a mission statement.

4. Have at least email contact info; a website for each committee is strongly suggested. Any changes to contact information must be announced at the GA.

5. All committees must have minutes, that at least include all consented upon decisions. These minutes must be made public.

6. All committees must have meeting times and locations that are publicized.

7. Membership requirements must be made public, any changes must be brought before the GA.

It is suggested that this information be emailed to olafacilition@gmail.com so that they can post this on their website, to olacoordination@gmail.com, and to olaswg@googlegroups.com. If there are any problems posting to these emails, please email me directly at fowler.ruth@gmail.com

Your point person can arrange a suitable time to come to GA within the next two weeks to announce this information by communicating directly with facilitation, so they can post this on their site.

It is suggested that the committee confirmation announcements be made at the start of proposals. Your point person will read out the criteria (handouts are encouraged, if possible) and then Facilitation will pose a simple question to the assembly: Has the committee reached the criteria set out in the committee confirmation proposal? If yes, the committee is confirmed. If there are questions or concerns, these can be heard at GA, but it is suggested that their solutions and responses be made outside GA in order to streamline the process, and the committee simply address the problem, and return to the next available GA with a solution in place.

It is important to note that debate over any committee's function should not be heard at GA, unless the GA itself wishes this to occur, as the proposal does not empower the Structure Working Group to do this. A committee cannot be 'hard-blocked' out of existence. This proposal is simply to confirm a committee's existence, and ensure that committee is working within our agreed principles of solidarity and the criteria established in the proposal. Both Facilitation and the Coordination Committee will, of course, have to fulfill this request alongside all the other committees.

The current list of committees which we believe to be actively functioning and have approached, are:

Wellness
Research
Resources
Art
General Strike
Media (inc. various subcommittees)
Facilitation
PCU
Legal
Action
Labor
Immigrant
Interfaith
Anti-War
Civic Engagement
City Liaison
Demands
InterOccupy
Coordination
Police Brutality (?)
Indigenous People

Please email me names of those committees we have unintentionally omitted, and details of point people, if known.

Hope to see you at GA in the next few days,
The Structure Working Group of the Coordination Committee


Committee Confirmation Proposal
http://losangelesga.net/2011/12/committee-confirmation-proposal/

Written on 12/21/2011 by LAGAFC in Past, Proposal
Proposed by: Structure Working Group
Type: ACTION
History: Heard at General Assembly on December 23rd, 2011, CONSENTED TO (with Amendments)
WHAT
We request that the General Assembly give the Structure Working Group – found at OLASWG@GOOGLEGROUPS.COM – working in conjunction with the Coordination Committee, permission to confirm the existence of current committees.
WHY
A committee is a group that operates under the OLA banner, has been approved by GA, and is defined as having a “hard function”. Examples of committees are: Resources, Facilitation, Food and Demands. Since the raid, there has been a need for reorganization and restructure. Because we do not have a centralized home camp anymore, some committees have disbanded, and have ceased to exist. The committees that do continue to exist have little interaction or dialogue with one other, and are scattered across the city in various location. We believe that this proposal being consented upon would serve to clarify what committees still exist, and allow us to start the process of gathering information about those committees to make public and increase our transparency and accountability.  This will facilitate dialogue between committees, so that, for example, a future raid could be better coordinated and more successfully planned between Action, Facilitation, Resources, Media, The Raid Committee, Wellness and others.
HOW
We ask that all committees fulfill these basic requirements:
1. Be horizontal, participatory, open, democratic and transparent.
2. Have a hard function
3. Provide a mission statement.
4. Have at least email contact info; a website for each committee is strongly suggested. Any changes to contact information must be announced at the GA.
5. All committees must have minutes, that at least include all consented upon decisions. These minutes must be made public.
6. All committees must have meeting times and locations that are publicized.
7. Membership requirements must be made public, any changes must be brought before the GA.
Note: Pages are available on losangelesGA.net for any committee that needs web space.
From January 1st 2012, after this proposal to confirm committees is consented upon, the Structure Working Group will announce at GA, on facebook, on the listserve, on the website, and on twitter, that all existing committees have fourteen days to provide this information by emailing us, and also by announcing the required information publicly at a General Assembly. After fourteen days days, we will have a complete list of OLA committees.  After which we will publish a list of existing committees on losangelesga.net, post to all social media and announce at GA. That will end the function of the group for confirming committees. Those committees that have not come forward will no longer be considered committees, though if any future group decides to revive that committee, they are entirely welcome to bring it back to GA with the above information and let the Assembly decide. New committees are always welcome and encouraged to come to GA for confirmation.